


Game Theory

by Elizabeth Culmer (edenfalling)



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Backstory, Games, Gen, Meta, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-20
Updated: 2010-01-20
Packaged: 2018-03-16 15:28:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3493451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/edenfalling/pseuds/Elizabeth%20Culmer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The nameless pharaoh sealed the Shadow Games, but memory is harder to kill than people often think.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Game Theory

**Author's Note:**

> One thing I find interesting about the world of _Yu-Gi-Oh!_ , but which rarely seems to come up in fic, is that games are treated like professional sports. Card games, board games, dice games, tabletop RPGs... You name it, there is probably at least one professional tournament for it, and that tournament will be broadcast on television and reported on in the newspapers. The only game that comes close to that in our world is poker, and even that is a stretch. (Okay, chess and Go too, in some ways and some places. But they are all very niche activities compared to sports.)
> 
> Somewhere along the line, Yuugi's world took a radically different turn from ours. And I think I know why. *grin*

The nameless pharaoh sealed the Shadow Games, but memory is harder to kill than people often think.

Legends persisted of a time when Egypt was ruled by magicians who were so strong their power might have destroyed the world, and who bound that power by the rules of games. Games were battles writ small. Games were battles where kings risked their lives and souls and honor. By playing games, rulers sheltered their people with their own strength instead of relying on their subjects for protection.

Games, so the legend said, were dangerous. Games were powerful. And a true king would not turn from a challenge.

It was only a legend, diluted by the passage of years and miles until almost nobody remembered its origin. War and plague and trade dominated the world. Kingdoms and cultures rose and fell, and Egypt dwindled from its glory to become a minor province in other empires. But now and again, a man or woman in desperate straits challenged a king or a priest or a warlord to a game. They staked their lives in order to snatch victory from despair.

Usually the challenged rulers laughed. Usually the rulers refused. Usually the challengers died.

But sometimes the rulers accepted the challenge. And then the challengers -- who had everything to lose and everything to gain, and who poured their souls into the games while the rulers laughed in scorn -- the challengers won. And if the rulers broke their promises, misfortune had a way of dogging their heels ever after.

It didn't happen often. But it happened just enough to keep the legend alive. It happened just enough that rulers who refused to play spent the rest of their lives followed by whispers of cowardice and dishonor.

A true king, whispered the legend, was not only a war leader, not only a law giver, not only a son of heaven. A true king was a master of games; he played for the lives and souls of his people, to guard them from harm in this world and the next. A true king could not lose.

Someday, whispered the legend, the King of Games would come again and make the world anew.

Until that day, his heirs would play in his honor, and save his legacy from silence.


End file.
